what would you choose - europe and then overland?

[swisspace]

Hi,

Until I searched through the archives I was sure what to get, now however I am having doubts

I want to fulfil my childhood dream and get a Landy. I have quite a bit of off road experience on motorbikes including a trip to morrocco a year back but things have changed I got married and gained two boys in the process. I want to continue off roading and plan to do the pyranees this summer and then places like sardinia, tunisia and hopefully one day biger trips to australia and down to south Africa, so I plan to keep it a long time

I thought a newish TD5 110 would be the choice but reading about problems getting spares in Africa etc I am beginning to have doubts, but registering a new 300Tdi would be difficult here in switzerland.

here is my current thinking

buy a fairly newish def TD5 110 in basic form and then modify it over a period of years until it is suitable for serious overlanding. I don't think it will need many, if any mods for the pyranees (i.e long range tanks could be addded later) and I could go progressively further each trip adding neccessary modifications until it is fully built. The electronics would be a worry but I would think that a TD5 would be less likely to break in the first place and as an electronics engineer I don't have problems taking a laptop and learning how to diagnose problems, and carrying spare programmed ecu and/or If necessary getting parts sent out and fitting them - however should worst case scenario anything happen to me I do worry that my wife and children may be stuck broken down somewhere in africa with a landrover that can't be fixed, but I guess that could be the same in a 300 Tdi and in such a case they would probably just dump the Landy and fly back if they can contact a bush mechanic to fix a 300 Tdi then they should be able to fly out

I won't be using it as a daily driver as its quicker and easier to get the bus here, it will mainly be used for long trips and holidays so I am also planning to tune the engine to give me a reasonable motorway cruising speed ( I am coming from a very fast car) and with a TD5 that will probably be a chip change and new intercooler, as I plan to do the mods myself then I will be able to undo them if needed.

does anyone see any major flaws in this route or would it be better to buy an already modified 300Tdi .

thanks in advance
IanW

[oRGie]

ah the good old td5 paranoia debate :) personelly I think the td5110 is awesome and very reliable :) I've been from Portugal's east coast to UK 3 times in mine, never missed a beat, I get 700km's from a tank of gas and have never needed to use one of my jerry cans because I allways fill up if under half a tank when I see a petrol station, Africa of course would be a different story..

I need to change mine (registration regulations in uk are forcing me) and am getting a td5 disco2 as I fancy a change and some luxury and am wondering if I'll love it like I love my defender..

My 110 isnt exactly slow, I can cruise on the motorway at 70mph and get about 26mpg at that speed, 65mph and below gives me 28mpg. Before I fitted bfg mud terrains and my roof rack I could quite easilly reach 160kph (on the speedo, so about 90mph probably) Bearing noise in mind, I would probably go for an overdrive rather than disco gearing in the tx case and tuning is up to you, i had mine chipped for a while but it was a piggy back unit and I didnt like the slight delay in power delivery and overun when lifting off the gas, so I took it out and since then have been quite satisfied with the standard power output (at least I have a clean licence)..

:)

[Astbury]

What part of Switzerland are you in Ian?



Chris

[swisspace]

oRGie - sorry to bring up the TD5 300Tdi debate again, I wouldn't have entertained a 300 Tdi if I hadn't read the thread about them being available again, but as I intend to keep it for a long time an drive in Europe (registering would be a big problem) an old model which is more likely to be unreliable isn't what I want even if I could find one here (at least that's the way I am thinking that at the moment)

Astbury (Chris) - I am not far from you, I live just outside Baden. I have been to these guys www.safari-centre.com (http://www.safari-centre.com) but do you know of any others, although I plan to modify it myself for two reasons one I get to know the vehicle and secondly its cheaper. There are quite a few 110's on www.autoscout24.ch (http://www.autoscout24.ch) but rarely any 300Tdi's

[Astbury]

Astbury (Chris) - I am not far from you, I live just outside Baden. I have been to these guys www.safari-centre.com (http://www.safari-centre.com/) but do you know of any others, although I plan to modify it myself for two reasons one I get to know the vehicle and secondly its cheaper. There are quite a few 110's on www.autoscout24.ch (http://www.autoscout24.ch/) but rarely any 300Tdi's

Ian,

We must get together some time. Safari centre is run by a guy called Chris Elliot, he is very very expensive but also does a very nice job, also he talks too much and take his time with everything (too much time). Though having a look at the work he has done to some of the Landy's out side his place is a great place to start for ideas.

My Td5 so far has never let me down with an electronics problem though having the kit to check what errors the ECU stores does help then garage find the fault a lot quicker. I once broke down in Mazouga in Morocco but managed to get the simple fault fixed in the end (tell you about that another time)

My wife and I have been all over Europe, Poland, Ukraine, Spain and the countried around Switz. Camping most weekends in the roof tent Summer and Winter.

I have a nother good friend that lives just around the corner that has not long come back from driving his ex Military 110 NA around Latin America check out his site: www.ihana.com (http://www.ihana.com) click on travel
You will see that not that much has been done to his Landy other than the usual roof rack, tent, webasto and he even managed the trip without extra fuel tanks by just taking along 4 jerry cans for fuel.

He has his Landy here in Zurich (looks like it's fu**d) but its still going and does the job.

Let me know when your next in Zurich and we can grab a beer....

[Slime101]

Having prepped a vehicle i would go with the TD5, its what i'm using @ the mo for my 3 month trip and its very very very capable, in fact, wanna buy it???

[swisspace]

Passed by merzouga, check out the morocco trip from this link www.ryd.ch I was on the GS so I guess a Landy wouldn't be much different weight wise ;)

cool site and beer sounds good, hoping to be in Zurich soon as a scottish mate is working there and keep meaning to meet up with him for a beer.

I have enabled the email from list members buts its loginnamehere@yahoo.co.uk

cheers Ian

[swisspace]

slime101 - I like the spec of yours but we need five forward facing seats, me wife and the boys so same problem as you, why don't you fit a row of seats in yours, but then again I understand why you want to change. depending upon what I buy and the funds though I may be interested in some of the kit you have fitted, either way you will be able to sell and kit it on thingbay.

Ian